THE SHEEP.-Those animals that take refuge under the protection of man in a few generations become indolent and helpless. Having lost the habit of self-defence, they seem to lose also the instincts of nature. The sheep, in its present domestic state, is of all animals the most defenceless and inoffensive.With its liberty, it seems to have been deprived of its swiftness and cunning; and what in the ass might rather be called patience, in the sheep appears to be stupidity. With no one quality to fit it for self-preservation, it makes vain efforts at all. They run together in flocks:-rather with the hopes of losing their single danger in the crowd, than of uniting to repress the attack by numbers. The sheep, therefore, were it exposed in its present state to struggle with its natural enemies of the forest, would soon be extirpated. Loaded with a heavy fleece, deprived of the defence of its horns, and rendered heavy, slow, and feeble, it can have no other safety than what it finds from man. This animal is now, therefore, obliged to rely solely upon that art for protection, to which it originally owes its degradation. But we are not to impute to Nature the formation of an animal so utterly unprovided against its enemies, and so unfit for defence. The mouflon, which is the sheep in a savage state, is a bold, fleet creature, able to escape from the greater animals by its swiftness, or to oppose the smaller kinds with the arms it has received from Nature. (White Face Sheep.) The sheep, in its servile state, seems to be divested of all inclinations of its own; and of all animals it appears the most stupid. Every quadruped has a peculiar turn of countenance, a physiognomy, if we may so call it, that generally marks its nature. The sheep seems to have none of those traits that betoken either courage or cunning; its large eyes, separated from each other, its ears sticking out on each side, and its narrow nostrils, all testify the (Black Face Sheep.) extreme simplicity of this creature; and the position of its horns also show that Nature designed the sheep rather for flight than combat. The goat, which it resembles in so many other respects, is much its superior.* THE GENUS OVIS.-Sheep are so nearly allied to goats, that the distinguishing characters of the two genera are of a trivial character. The chaffron, which in the former is almost invariably more or less elevated, is in the latter occasionally of the same form; the beard is not absolutely wanting in the one, and sometimes absent in the other. It was believed by the ancients, that sheep are of hybrid production; and the moderns still relate, that the commixture of the two species produce prolific breeds, said to be common in some parts of Russia, and also found in America. There are, however, no wellauthenticated facts to establish the matter beyond a doubt; and the mere carelessness of the proprietors of flocks is certainly insufficient cause for their existence; for if the two genera intermixed with facility, and remained prolific, most countries would be without the pure breed of either, and possess only the intermediate; and above all, the west coast of Africa would be in that condition, because the wool is there no object, and not the least care is taken in breeding of the domestic animals; and yet several breeds of The one has its particular attachments, sees danger, and generally contrives to escape it but the other is timid without a cause, and secure when real danger approaches. Nor is the sheep, when bred up tame in the house, and familiarized with its keepers, less obstinately absurd: from being dull and timid, it then acquires a degree of pert familiarity; butts with its head, becomes mischievous, and shows itself every way unworthy of being singled out from the rest of the goats and sheep exist, perfectly distinct, and without the smallest appearance of having mixed at any former period. If the Caprine, or goat genus, be endowed with a more indelible impression of its primitive characters, with more confidence and familiarity, a greater spirit of independence, combined with an elasticity of temperament fitted for all climates and soils, so as to render it an earlier associate of man, during the first dawnings of civilization, and cause it to multiply by his care in woods and swamps; the Ovine, though more timid, and, when domesticated, more helpless and delicate, must have become the most important acquisition, especially in the colder climates of the earth, as soon as the state of society and of the region would suffer its propagation. At first, no doubt, it was without wool, but certain parts of Asia have a natural tendency to prolong the fur of animals. Cashmere and the ridges of Caucasus, and the central parts of Asia Minor may be considered as the favourite nursery from whence the improved fleece-bearing animals have gradually spread over the rest of the world. It was at the foot of Caucasus that Jason obtained his celebrated spoils. COURAGE OF SHEEP.-Sheep are certainly timid animals, but this shyness, as in other ruminants, is balanced by curiosity, and when once overcome, tends to extreme confidence. The courage of sheep is superior to that of goats. The males, both wild and tame, alike contend with each other for the possession of the females, by butting with the forehead and horns, running at each other with great force. The solidity of their skulls is such, that the domestic ram, whose blows strike low, will drive a bull out of the field. Rams, and even wethers, will attack, and sometimes kill, dogs or foxes. Instances of this kind are not uncommon in the mountainous parts of England. British shepherds are well acquainted with the cunning and the arts sheep will put in practice to elude their vigilance, when a young corn-field entices them to theft; and the Scottish and western mountaineers often witness their sagacity in anticipating a storm, by seeking timely shelter under a cliff, where sometimes it is necessary to dig them out of the snow, in which they become buried, without incurring any material injury. SHEEP IN BRITAIN.-No history, ancient or modern, shows an equal instance of such persevering attention bestowed upon improving the breeds of domestic animals in general, and of sheep in particular, as Great Britain presents. The affluent leisure of the great emulating the practical science of the farmer, is alike engaged in a pursuit, which the sovereign himself has not disdained to support, and science has forwarded with all its means. When the attention of an enlightened and powerful nation is thus concentrated upon objects of real and practical utility, the result is invariably commensurate with the effort: and hence, not only horses and oxen, and even swine, have arrived at a very high standard of improvement-some, perhaps, at the highest attainable, consistent with the climate and circumstances of the case. With regard to sheep, it appears that the chief aim of improvement consists in combining the production of the best wool with the most delicate flesh, upon the least possible quantity of bone, at the smallest expense, and without injuring the vigour and hardiness of the animals. These advantages were not obtained but by slow degress, great expense, and persevering attention. It is nearly twenty years since the system commenced; and its increasing importance may be traced by the comparative prices paid for the hire of rams for the season, and the rate of purchase for those possessed of prime qualifications. At that period, the best rams of the Leicester breed were let out for hire by the season, at sixteen and seventeen shillings a piece; and from that time the price kept rising from one guinea to ten, and even more. For the purchase of rams, four hundred guineas have been repeatedly given; and Bewick states that Mr. Bakewell, in 1789, made twelve hundred guineas by three rams, two thousand guineas of seven, and three thousand guineas of the remainder of his stock. The British sheep may be considered as forming two combined races, collectively distinguishable from others by a very delicately-formed head, the chaffron not much arched; those derived from the original or old breed with horns, the others mostly without. According to Mr. Culley, there are fourteen different breeds of sheep in the kingdom, all of them sufficiently distinguished by their horns or by being hornless, by the colour of their faces and legs, and by the length and quality of their wool. BLACK-FACED HEATH BREED.-This race, usually termed Short Sheep, though now greatly absorbed in various other species, still exists in the north-west of Yorkshire, as far as Fort William in Scotland, and in one of flock. Thus it seems rather formed for slavery than friendship, and framed more for the necessities than the amusements of mankind. There is but one instance in which the sheep shows any attachment to its keeper, and that is seen rather on the continent, than among us in Great Britain. What I allude to is, their following the sound of the shepherd's pipe. Before I had seen them trained in this manner, I had no conception of those descriptions in the old two of the northern English counties. Their eyes have a wild, fiery aspect, they run with great facility among the heathy mountains, and their flesh is peculiarly fine and high flavoured. They carry from three to four pounds of wool. NORFOLK SHEEP.-These bear marks of their originating from the heath. This breed has a voracious appetite, and a restless disposition; they are good travellers, but not su valuable as others. DORSET SHEEP.-These are also derived, probably, from the ancient stock. This breed has the peculiar property of producing lambs at almost any period of the year. They are particularly valued for supplying London, and other markets, with house lamb, which is brought to market by Christmas, or sooner. Passing over the mere technical differences of the Wiltshire and Herefordshire breeds, we may allude here to a small-horned race in the north of Scotland and the Isles, said to have been once imported from Denmark or Norway. They are named Dun-faced Sheep. The same occurs in Zetland, where another breed of the race is gradually disappearing. The largest sheep in Great Britain are to be met with on the banks of the Tees, which runs through a very rich and fertile country. SHEEP OF THE SHETLAND ISLANDS. Before we conclude these notes, we must take notice of a breed of sheep which have hitherto been but little known or attended to, though it is probable they possess advantages of equal importance with those we have just mentioned; and in all likelihood, they might have continued still longer in the same neglected state, but for the endeavours of a set of men, who, actuated by a truly patriotic zeal, are labouring to draw out the natural resource of their country, and secure, to the most distant and long neglected parts of the kingdom, those permanent advantages to which they are by their situation entitled. In pursuing these important objects, the Highland Society of Scotland have discovered that the Shetland Islands, and some parts of the Highlands of Scotland, are in possession of a breed of sheep, which produces wool infinitely superior to that of any other in the kingdom, and equal to Spanish wool in fineness and texture. By order of the society, specimens of these sheep have been obtain ed, for the purpose of a fair investigation into the nature and quality of their wool; which, upon examination, proves much finer than was at first imagined. The Shetland sheep are handsome, small, and in general hornless; and are peculiarly distinguished by the unusual shortness and smallness of their tails. They weigh, when fat, from eight to ten pounds per quarter. Their fleeces are upon an average, about two pounds weight. The wool, when properly dressed, is of a pure and glossy white: some small specimens of it, when compared with Vigognia wool, was allowed by good judges to be fully as fine, and in softness equal to that of which India shawls are made. The sheep producing this wool are of the hardiest nature; they are never housed, and in the winter season are often so pinched for food, that they are obliged to feed upon the sea-ware driven upon the shore. Besides the wool with which they are covered, they have long hairs growing amongst it, which serve to shelter it. It is a singular circumstance, that the Shetland sheep are never shorn; but, about the beginning of June, the wool is pulled off, without the smallest pain or injury to the animal, leaving the long hairs already mentioned, which contribute to keep the creature warm and comfortable, at a season of the year when cold and piercing winds may be expected, in so northern a latitude. From the spirited measures which are now taking to preserve this valuable breed, we are led to hope that British wool may in time regain that great superiority for which it was once so famous; and that, by perseverance and attention to this important object, we may in time be enabled to produce not only as fine wool as can be obtained from any other country, but may also in the same breed be able to conjoin it with every other desirable peculiarity-such as closeness of fleece, beauty, utility of form, hardiness, a capability of being easily fattened, largeness of size, and other valuable qualities adapted to every peculiarity of situation in these islands. BRITISH WOOL.-We alluded just now to the value of English wool in former times, over that of the present day. From the reign of Edward I., the wool produced was an article of immense value to the kingdom; and from Edward III. to Henry VII., the wool staple was an object of repeated legislative attention. It is curious, that in earlier periods the English breed was transported to Spain. "King Edward IV." says Baker, "enters into a league with John, King of Arragon, to whom he sent a score of Costal ewes and five rams, a small present in shew, but great in event; for it proved of more pastoral poets, of the shepherd leading his flock from one country to another. As I had been used only to see these harmless creatures driven before their keepers, I supposed that all the rest was but invention; but in many parts of the Alps, and even some provinces of France, the shepherd and his pipe are still continued, with true antique simplicity. The flock, is regularly penned every evening, to preserve them from the wolf; and the shepherd returns homeward at sunset, with his sheep following him, and seemingly pleased with the sound of the pipe, which is blown with a reed, and resembles the chant of the bagpipe. In this manner, in those countries that still continue poor, the Arcadian life is preserved in all its former purity; but in countries where a greater inequality of conditions prevail, the shepherd is generally some poor wretch, who attends a flock from which he is to derive no benefits, and only guards those luxuries which he is not fated to share. It does not appear, from early writers, that the sheep was bred in Britain; and it was not till several ages after this animal was cultivated, that the woollen manufacture was carried on among us. (g) That valuable branch of business lay for a considerable time in foreign hands; and we were obliged to import the cloth, manufactured from our own materials. There were, notwithstanding, many unawailing efforts among our kings to introduce and preserve the manufacture at home. Henry the Second, by a patent granted to the weavers in London, directed, that if any cloth was found made of a mixture of Spanish wool, it should be burned by the mayor. Such edicts at length, although but slowly, operated towards the establishing this trade among us. The Flemings, who at the revival of arts possessed the art of cloth-working in a superior degree, were invited to settle here; and, soon after, foreign cloth was prohibited from being worn in England. In the times of queen Elizabeth, this manufacture received every encouragement; and many of the inhabitants of the Netherlands being then forced, by the tyranny of Spain, to take refuge in this country, they improved us in those arts, in which we at present excel the rest of the world. Every art, however, has its rise, its meridian, and its decline; and it is supposed by many, that the woollen manufacture has for some time been decaying amongst us. The cloth now made is thought to be much worse than that of some years past; being neither so firm nor so fine, neither so much courted abroad, nor so serviceable at home.* benefit to Spain, and more detriment to England, than could at first have been imagined." From the middle of the fourteenth century, the government constantly endeavoured to introduce the manufacturers of woollens into this realm; and that the gradual success of these measures was chiefly owing to the turbulence of the weavers, and afterwards to the religious wars of the Netherlands, which brought them partly as exiles, partly as emigrants, to the British shores. The value of wool exported in the reign of Edward III. amounted to 150,000l. per annum; at present, the value of wool shorn in England, and no longer exported, is estimated at 5,000,0007. sterling, which, together with about 600,0007. of Spanish wool and some Saxon imported, is worth above 20,000,000l. per annum. WILD SHEEP OF GREAT BRITAIN. It appears that in ancient times a wild species of sheep inhabited Great Britain. Boetius mentions a wild breed in St. Kilda, larger than the biggest goat, with tails hanging to the ground, and horns longer and as bulky as those of an ox. Pennant observes upon this subject, that such an animal is figured on a bas-relief taken out of the wall of Antoninus, near Glasgow. * BLACK SHEEP. According to Giraldus Cambrensis (who, though a retailer of fables, may be perhaps credited in this), the Irish in his time were chiefly clothed in black garments, because their sheep, from which the wool was furnished, were black. (Vide Topograph., and also Collectan. de Reb. Hibern., xi.) When this is compared with what Southey tells us, in his Letters from Spain, namely, that in the north of the Peninsula, the sheep are almost all of a black colour; we may, perhaps, justly conclude, that the black Irish sheep, mentioned by old Giraldus, had been originally imported from Spain at the period, it may be, of the Milesian emigration. Those who are extensively acquainted with Ireland may be able to say whether this breed of black sheep is now propagated there.-J. R.—LOUDON'S MAG. (g) British Zoology, vol. i. p. 23. No country, however, produces such sheep as England; either with larger fleeces, or better adapted for the business of clothing. Those of Spain, indeed, are finer, and we generally require some of their wool to work up with our own; but the weight of a Spanish fleece is no way comparable to one of Lincoln or Warwickshire; and, in those counties, it is no uncommon thing to give fifty guineas for a ram. This animal, in its domestic state, is too well known to require a detail of its peculiar habits, or of the arts which have been used to improve the breed. Indeed, in the eye of an observer of Nature, every art which tends to render the creature more helpless and useless to itself, may be considered rather as an injury than an improvement; and if we are to look for this animal in its noblest state, we must seek for it in the African desert, or the extensive plains of Siberia. Among the degenerate descendants of the wild sheep, there have been so many changes wrought, as entirely to disguise the kind, and often to mislead the observer. The variety is so great, that scarce any two countries has its sheep of the same kind; but there is found a manifest difference in all, either in size, the covering, the shape, or the horns. Of the domestic kinds to be found in the different parts of the world, besides our own, which is common in Europe, the first variety is to be seen in Iceland, Muscovy, and the coldest climates of the north. This, which may be called *AFRICAN SHEEP.-Asia exhi bits the most numerous and finest (Wallachian Sheep.) (Angola Sheep.) proved breed of England in form, shape of the ears, and voluminous scrotum; but the wool, though curling, is rather coarse, and straight on the thighs and tail; the horns are very long, marked with a prominent ridge, diverging almost at right angles from the head, and twisted, in a lax, spiral form, into two turns and a half. The breed is white. A race of Europe, with horns of a peculiar character, so as to have been regarded as forming a distinct species, and named Strepsiceros by the moderns, is the Cretan. The animals are of a handsome form, with long horns, having a strong ridge at the base, and then three additional spiral twists, ascending vertically; the ears are small, drooping; the tail long and the whole body covered with undulating wool, of rather a coarse quality; the face and legs are often speckled, or even entirely black. ZUNA, OR GOITERED SHEEP OF ANGOLA, is a fourth of the Angola breed, low on the legs, with close hair, pendulous ears, and tail reaching to the fetlocks. It is very deli |